Wednesday, December 23, 2009

John Birch Society to co-sponsor the next Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)

Here's a blast from the past!

In case the John Birch Society doesn't ring a bell, it was (and apparently still is) a notorious far-right nutcase group, founded in 1958 by a businessman named Robert Welch, whose trademark was paranoid and delusional conspiracy theories. And in case you think that I am exaggerating unfairly when I use words like "paranoid" and "delusional," let me just mention that Robert Welch accused President Dwight D. Eisenhower of being "dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy" (no, I'm not making that up). That captures the general style of their world-view. I remember hearing a fair amount about the John Birch Society back in the early and mid-1960s, but I haven't thought about them for a long time, and if I had been asked, I would have guessed that the organization either went out of business decades ago or had dwindled down to a few dedicated geriatric wackos.

Apparently not. Not only is the John Birch Society still alive and kicking, but it seems that the it will be one of the co-sponsors of the next Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 2010. Now, in my opinion, a lot of the other CPAC participants, past and future, are already hard-right extremists only tenuously in contact with reality. But including the John Birch Society, no less, brings this tendency to the point of self-parody.

But, again, don't just take my word for it. Yesterday a writer on the right-wing website Pajamas Media, who (unlike me) is sympathetic to CPAC and all its works, and who also happens to have up-to-date information about the contemporary JBS, described this as a "monumentally stupid decision." He also patiently explained why even CPAC should continue to regard the John Birch Society as a fringe group beyond the pale of political respectability (as, say, William F. Buckley argued over four decades ago). At the very least, he suggested, "CPAC has made a major PR mistake in forming this alliance with JBS."

Could be, if anyone notices. But then again, in the era of Tea Parties and Sarah Palin (an invited speaker at the February CPAC), are paranoid and delusional conspiracy theories really that far out of the CPAC mainstream?

The writers of The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and Saturday Night Live (although I’m not convinced they’ve even had writers lately) can have February 18-20, 2010, off. The hosts can handle it themselves. On those dates, the jokes will practically write themselves as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) takes place — co-sponsored by the John Birch Society. Every liberal commentator needs to send a thank-you note to CPAC’s organizers for that monumentally stupid decision.

By having the John Birch Society sponsor it, CPAC can guarantee that 90% of the coverage regarding the conference will relate to JBS’ oh-my-god-look-a-conspiracy attitude rather than the heavy-hitters and rising stars of conservatism and libertarianism that speak there. Instead of focusing on politics, reporters will ask attendees for their response to the JBS controversy and will ask organizers whether they are in such financial distress that they had to embrace a fringe group for support.

Here’s a little history on JBS for those of you that may not understand why this issue is going to overshadow any agenda pursued at the conference. The organization was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a businessman concerned about communist infiltration of the U.S. It is understandable why people would initially be drawn into his fold, given advances internationally by hostile communist powers and their intense espionage efforts in the West. However, Welch, apparently believing in the supreme competence of government, could not fathom that the U.S. government failed to halt such advances unless it secretly sympathized with the enemy’s success. A conspiracy theory that the European and American governments were secretly pursuing a socialist one-world government to merge our societies with that of the communists was born.

William F. Buckley Jr. was one of the most prominent critics of JBS, aware that its paranoia undermined efforts by the political right to give more attention to the menacing threat posed by the communists. Buckley wrote that Welch “said Dwight D. Eisenhower was a ‘dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy,’ and that the government of the United States was ‘under operational control of the Communist Party.’ It was, he said in the summer of 1961, ‘50-70 percent’ communist-controlled.”

Today, many decent people are still part of JBS, some of whom don’t fully accept its theories. They are anti-globalist, favor a U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations, are socially conservative, and want to dramatically reduce spending and the size of government. With the Republican Party viewed by many conservatives as having betrayed its principles, it’s not a surprise that a group would be embraced as long as it is upholding conservative ideals, even if it has some wacky theories.

JBS is also very aggressive in its recruiting efforts. I remember being 15 or 16 years old, and I had just published my first couple of articles on the Internet. As I did some research, I decided to try a trial subscription of The New American, which is owned by JBS. Very soon after, I was emailed and then visited by a representative of the organization trying pretty forcefully to sell me a full subscription and educate me about the new world order conspiracy. I was introduced to a myriad of organizations that acted as fronts for the new world order agents and shown how virtually everyone of significance in politics and the media was part of them. He boasted of the summer camps the group ran to educate youngsters in great things like the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and, of course, the manipulation carried out by the freedom-hating globalist forces. “Be leery of Bush and Cheney,” I was warned, due to the vice president’s membership in the Council on Foreign Relations. The conspiracy warned about by Welch still existed today, albeit in a more modern manifestation.

In 2002 and 2003, I read some free issues of The New American and couldn’t get past why, if the Bush administration was supposedly involved in this conspiracy, it would raise the ire of many of the world’s countries (also said to be involved in the NWO) by acting without UN approval in invading Iraq. I remember reading an article explaining that the U.S. had begun Operation Iraqi Freedom to enforce UN law as part of the conspiracy, not for national security reasons. Other articles entertained the idea that the American people had been deliberately misled to support the war.

Ironically, in warning about such conspiracies, JBS undermines a crucial argument of conservatism: that the government becomes far less competent as it grows. Think about it. Such theories require that both U.S. political parties, despite all their differences, unite for a choreographed effort to bring about a socialist new world order in concert with a host of other countries, political parties, and businessmen. Tens of thousands of people must be involved with complete devotion, with none defecting out of moral conviction, and all resisting the temptation to become rich and famous by exposing the conspiracy. Now, that’s competence! If they can pull that off, then government-run health care is a cinch!

The whole problem with JBS’ arguments is that big government is not flawlessly competent. Look at Katrina. Look at Iraq. A massive conspiracy on this order cannot be carried out without betrayal and leaks taking place. If governments like Iran and China, with all their brutality, can’t keep their secrets from getting out, how can a greater number of countries and powerful individuals and organizations with greater restraint on enforcing their secrecy pull it off?

The most concerning element of this development is the question of how much influence JBS will have over CPAC, an event whose importance in the conservative movement can’t be understated. Is this simply a reflection of the dissatisfaction of conservatives, willing to find just somebody to uphold small government? Is this a reflection of libertarians just looking for somebody to oppose overseas wars and the war on drugs, and push more radical policies than most conservatives are willing to consider?

CPAC has made a major PR mistake in forming this alliance with JBS. It won’t be long until the media puts all those taking part on the defensive, forcing the organizers to spend precious time explaining this move. From now on, when I hear the acronym “CPAC,” I won’t think “Conservative Political Action Conference.” I’ll think “Consciously Providing Ammo to Critics.”

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About Me

Jeff Weintraub is a social & political theorist, political sociologist, and democratic socialist who has been teaching most recently at the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, and the New School for Social Research.. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University in 2015-2016 and is currently a Research Associate at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College.
(Also an Affiliated Professor with the University of Haifa in Israel & an opponent of academic blacklists.)